INSTAGRAM VS SNAPCHAT; INSTA 1 SNAP 0

INSTAGRAM VS SNAPCHAT; INSTA 1 SNAP 0

The new feature of Instagram, called as INSTAGRAM-STORIES has created ripples within the lives of it's competing app, Snapchat. Here's what the CEO of both the application based companies have to say.

It might be among the worst days in the life of Snapchat CEO, Evan Spiegal, who must have woke up to hear his mobile based Application, Snapchat lost one of its USP’s of live recording of short videos, as the one of his rival and witty application, Instagram launched a similar feature of recording short-live videos with the option of sharing with the followers, or insta-users.

For those who have no idea about how Snapchat and Instagram add to the much needed solace to one’s social life, here’s a short-read (btw, I can’t even believe that such people do exist!)

Snapchat is an image messaging and a multimedia mobile application or in other words it involves a mix of many services like private messaging and public content, uploading a live event of your life in form of short videos or a series of short videos and photos clubbed together( they remain posted for only some hours or a day, unlike Facebook) , also sharing one’s images with ‘cool’ filters, (ever saw a dog faced-human on any social site?- yes, that’s one of the most popular filters of Snapchat)

On the other hand Instagram is an online, but can be operational using both mobile phones or laptop, it’s features are photo-sharing, video sharing (not live) and is basically a social networking application. It enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them either publicly or privately, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. Originally, a distinctive feature was that it confined photos to a square shape, in contrast to the 4:3 aspect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras. However, In August 2015, version 7.5 was released, allowing users to post photos captured in any aspect ratio. Users can also apply digital filters to their images (these filters are basic, sweat and blemishing hiding ones). The maximum duration for Instagram videos is 15 seconds to 1 minute, after upgrading one’s application.

But the launch of a revolutionary new feature on Instagram, has created ripples among it’s users as well as other competing applications, where one such is Snapchat. Many have claimed that that the new feature has been copied, as it was a bright idea from Snapchat. Earlier, people were able to only post the highlights of their life on Instagram, “so today the app adds its own version of “Stories” to poach goofy, off-the-cuff, everyday content from Snapchat. It works exactly like Snapchat Stories, allowing you to post 24-hour ephemeral photo with captions on and video slideshows that disappear.”But because Instagram Stories appear at the top of the old feed (which is different from snapchat), one’s followers (people who can see your all the posts) will inevitably watch them without you needing to build a new audience in a different app. Instagram stories shall be soon rolling to all kinds of mobile-based softwares and might soon take over Snapchat’s share with a blatant rip-off.

‘Over the moon and back’ happy CEO of Instagram,Kevin Systrom wouldn’t disagree with the claims of others. When confronted about Instagram Stories being a twin brother of Snapchat Stories, he surprisingly admitted “They deserve all the credit,” but insisted “This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.” (Savage!!)

But, here are some of the differences between Snapchat and Instagram Stories, as posted by the techcrunch website.

Instagram Stories appear in a row at the top of the main feed instead of on and are sorted by who you interact with most, not purely reverse chronological order like Snapchat.

Your insta-followers can see your Insta-Stories, though you can also block people, as opposed to building a separate network on Snapchat.

You don’t have to be following someone to view their Instagram Stories, which can be viewed from their profile as long as they’re public

You can swipe right or tap the Stories icon in the top left to open the Stories camera, as opposed to Snapchat defaulting to the camera.

You can hold the screen to pause a slideshow, or tap the left side to go back a slide, as opposed to Snapchat’s time-limited, constantly progressing Stories.

You can’t add old content to Instagram Stories unless you re-import or screenshot, while Snapchat lets you share old Memories with a white border and timestamp around them

Instagram offers three brush types for drawing: standard, translucent highlighter and color-outlined neon, as opposed to Snapchat’s single brush.

However, Insta-stories lack some of the best features, like vibrant and all kinds of filters like Snapchat offers to its users and also there is no warning of someone screen-shotting your video or image content. But as it looks like, it’s a winning battle for Instagram as it might soon offer another updated feature, overrunning Snapchat’s fame.

The happiness is sustained among the users who are excitingly posting out their life lives and sharing it with their followers with elation of this new addition to their monotonous and ‘still’ Insta Profiles.